After the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the defense in catastrophic injury cases has attempted to use the act to limit the plaintiff’s claim for future medical expenses. Defense counsel contends that under the act, the plaintiff’s damages for future medical care should be capped at the amount of the maximum premiums and out-of-pocket expenses allowed by the act. In the alternative, the defense has argued that they should be permitted to introduce the existence of governmental benefits that the plaintiff is receiving in order to cross-examine the plaintiff’s damage experts (life care planner and/or economist) concerning the “true” costs of the future medical care, i.e., the amount that Medicare or Medicaid will reimburse medical care providers for the projected future medical expenses. The effect of this is to get before the jury the fact that the plaintiff is receiving public benefits that would pay for future medical expenses. These issues have arisen in catastrophic personal injury cases in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In Pennsylvania, the Superior Court has more recently addressed this issue in Deeds v. University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, 110 A.3d 009 (Pa. Super. 2015), rehearing denied, Pa. Super Ct. Apr. 7, 2015. In an opinion authored by now-Justice-elect David Wecht, the Superior Court overturned the jury’s verdict for the defense in an obstetrical negligence case. The Deeds decision provides clear guidance on the issue of the admissibility of collateral source benefits under Pennsylvania law.
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